Venezuela talks in Bogota sputter on first day: Update

Updates status of talks.

Venezuela's fractured opposition started talks today with the government of President Nicolas Maduro amid low expectations and increasing demands from the administration in exchange for any agreements.

Plans for the encounter hit rocky ground even before beginning, with the most well-known opposition leader departing Colombia for the US and Maduro's government conditioning discussions on the end of an international investigation into the administration for human rights abuses. Maduro also called for the lifting of US sanctions before talks advance, while the US has said a path to free and fair elections is a condition for doing so.

Today's talks were the first such dialogue since the US partially eased oil sanctions on state-owned oil firm PdV in late 2022 and allowed US major Chevron to export oil from its joint-venture with state-owned PdV. No major agreements will likely come from this round, but the initiative could boost the chances for resuming discussions under a model that began in Mexico last year.

"This initiative that [Colombian president Gustavo] Petro has taken could contribute to unblock the situation," EU representative Josep Borrell said when arriving for the talks. Borrell and representatives of two dozen other countries in the western hemisphere, including the US, met separately to discuss ways to move the Venezuelan political dialogue forward.

The Venezuelan government-opposition talks will not include one-time main opposition leader Juan Guaido, who on 24 April said he crossed the Venezuela-Colombia border by foot to attend as he is legally barred from leaving the country by the Maduro government. Colombia's government said he had entered the country in an irregular way, and Guaido — saying he had been threatened — left the country for Miami, Florida, where he arrived early this morning.

"Regrettably, the persecution of the [Maduro] dictatorship today has extended into Colombia," Guaido said in a video post.

American diplomats arranged for Guaido's passage through Colombia to the US, the State Department said today, referring to him as "former interim president." The US no longer recognizes his claim to power, but also refuses to recognize Maduro's presidency.

Guaido was previously the interim president as head of the US-recognized national assembly before being ousted in December, but he continues to speak for parts of the opposition.

Colombia has received about 2mn of the about 7.2mn Venezuelans who have left the country since Maduro took over in 2013, according to UN estimates.

By Carlos Camacho and Carla Bass